Uncle Boonmee is beautifully filmed, but was it really worthy of one of the most prestigious honors in the film world?
http://cynicritics.com/2011/08/06/review-uncle-boonme/
Yes.
ce n'est pas une image juste, c'est juste une image
No.
It's about how audaciously you are carrying on in calm.
No doubt about it.
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Watch these 2:
imdb.com/title/tt1139797
imdb.com/title/tt0773262
No.
"Live on, love all, and let live" - River Phoenix.
YES, OF COURSE.
shareImdb's probably not the best place to ask that question.
The answer's yes.
Definitely not!
I mean, I don't mind the pacing of the film, nor the fact that there is an abundance of cultural references and codes in it that I don't understand, however, to give it the Palme D'or is a bit of a stretch. I've seen films like this done ten times better.. and with at least SOME sense of a narrative.
This film to me was boring and pretentious.
Not really, no.
I have serious affection for films that are challenging, that don't care at all whether a 14-year-old can hang with them, foreign films and indies that are good films (many are not), etc. And I love a good Asian film.
However, you have to ask yourself: How else could this subject have been done in that same setting with those same characters? How much of the beauty in the film has little to do with the story or filmmaking itself, and really is about the location? How much is mere mystery, as in information artificially withheld from the audience? How much of the interest is in the mere fact of its foreignness to Western cultures?
It seems to me this is a case of what has become absolutely epidemic in modern film criticism -- namely, overpraise. That is a problem generally, and it is also a problem specifically with many foreign films, where gaps and weaknesses can be disregarded by the xenophile viewer as cultural quirks.
One thing the film does establish: There are places in the world where, with the light at the right time of day and a good cinematographer, all you have to do is turn the camera and sound on, and it's just...gorgeous, without even trying, without regard to story or anything else.
I don't mean it's a terrible film. It's not. And it has moments of great beauty. It also treats a serious subject with no regard for the adolescent ticket-buyer, which I love. A 14-year-old has to catch up to the adult sensibility, not the other way around. Love it.
But it is not great, and unless it was up against an unusually weak field, I can't believe there was no better foreign-language film at Cannes.
I saw this film and The Clone Returns Home on consecutive nights. If you can, try doing that and then making a case that Uncle Boonmee would be the best film in any group of recent Asian films. You can add something like Mother to that list too, and maybe Tokyo Sonata and Departures.
I think this is a very good way of putting this. Whether one agrees about Uncle Boonmee or not doesn't alter that this is a bit of a phenomenon: overpraise with film. Emncaity (from the Old Days...) puts his finger on this very well with foreign films, but we see it a lot with arthouse/indie stuff, too.
Some films are slow-paced and deep and draw you in.
Or is it all just subjective experience?